Alive Inside- A Clementine x Male Reader The Walking Dead Story (Choice Based)

Chapter 31: Morals

"Like, I think... I think I'm mad at Tenn, too. Running out of cover when Lilly attacked us was really stupid. But he just doesn't know stuff like we do," he explains.

"And then Willy started yelling at him instead of helping him learn. Why don't the other kids know all the stuff we know? When there's a plan, you have to follow it. And when you yell at someone it just makes them not listen," he continues.

"Well, we can teach them. The kids are smart, someone just needs to show them what to do," Clementine replies. AJ nods his head as a small smile crosses his face.

"Yeah, I want Tenn to know how to be safe. We can show them how to be smart like us," he says.

Clementine nods her head happily as you sit down next to her. The three of you look out into the trees for another moment before AJ speaks up again.

"It's weird that people are so different from each other," he says quietly. You chuckle as you look over to the two.

"Yeah well, it is Ericson's boarding school for troubled youth," you say with a smirk. Clementine giggles as AJ looks over to you with a confused expression.

"Troubled youth. Troubled.. like bad? So they did bad things? Why?" He asks.

You sigh and shake your head before you look back down to him.

"Okay, um, sometimes they do bad things because bad things happened to them. It's not always their fault that they did them," you try to explain. AJ continues to look to you and Clem with a confused expression.

"Why?" He asks.

"Back when you were just a baby, I knew a doctor. The kids sometimes do bad things because of something called trauma," Clementine explains.

Her expression changes to a more saddened one as she continues.

"You have some of that too, you know. That thing where you don't like people walking up behind you," she adds.

AJ nods his head as you see him start to catch on.

"I don't like my trauma. I want to get it off of me... how do I get rid of it?" He asks after a moment.

"Thats.. really hard to do on your own. A lot of people can't without some help," you answer.

"Like from a doctor?" AJ replies. Clementine shrugs as she nods her head.

"Sure, but those are rare these days," she explains. AJ nods his head as he starts to think of other solutions. You see his face light up after a moment and he looks to you and Clementine.

"Or like the school too, right? It was supposed to help with people's trauma," he explains.

"Yeah, it was. And now they help each other," Clementine answers after a second.

AJ nods his head as you all look back out into the forest again. Another few seconds pass until he speaks again.

"I still like them," he says quietly.

"I like Tenn the most, I think. Even if he does dumb things. Actually.. I think he's my first real friend," AJ continues happily. You look over to him and smile.

"Oh yeah? What about me and Clementine?" You ask playfully. AJ looks down for a moment as he starts to think.

"Well, yeah.. but you guys don't count. You're old!" He replies after a moment.

Clementine looks back to him with a shocked expression as she she giggles.

"No we're not!" She replies with a smile.